is it possible to creat a virtual DAQ?

[totti]

Hi,
I am doing a project which requires using 2 existing softwares:
+ Software A was written to produce 3 analog outputs and it supports the analog output board ACL 6126.
+ Software B was written to receive the 3 analog outputs produced by software A and analyse them. It supports the card LabPC+.

Obviously, the 2 softwares can be installed in the same PC.
Is there a way to feed the outputs of software A to software B without actually using the I/O boards?
A restriction is that I am not allowed to do any modification on software A.

Thanks 😉

[aasenjo]

Totti,

I don't think it would be possible. Here are my reasons:

You can think of both software A and B as virtual instruments that interact with the user and output/input information (signals) through the I/O boards. These virtual instruments are made up of layers that may include:

- The application itself (software A or B)
- The driver for the I/O board that they use
- The Hardware Abstraction Layer of the OS
- The I/O board itself.

If you want to pass the information from software A to B without using the I/O boards then you must find a way to "intercept the data" without using the I/O boards. You probably cannot do this because:

- You cannot modify software A
- Software A will probably not work correctly if the hardware is not present. Even if
it did it would be almost impossible to know how to extract the data out of the driver or OS layers.

This is a pretty general view of the systems you are describing. I hope it helps by shedding some light on the way these things work and why I don't think you can do the desired task.

I hope this helps,

Alejandro Asenjo
Applications Engineer
National Instruments